5 Important Steps to Follow When Growing a Following on Instagram

Instagram is one of the most talked-about
social platforms on the internet today. Well Facebook continues to lose
subscribers and be in the news for all of their privacy policy on personal
information leakage, Instagram is where more users are heading than ever
before.

As funny as it is, Instagram is loved by
millions of users, but most of them don’t realize that it’s also owned by
Facebook. Actually, this is what makes Facebook a genius. They knew this
platform was going to be huge before it did, and they spent a billion dollars
on acquiring it right when it first started gaining traction.

However, there are some big differences
between Instagram and Facebook. The first thing that Instagram is mainly
targeted towards a mobile audience and using only visual content. Another is
that Instagram
automation tactics have made it a lot easier for individuals and
brands to compete with larger agencies when it comes to growth and scalability.

If you
aren’t actively growing your brand and reach on Instagram, these are five steps
you need to follow to make sure you are on the right path for success.

1 –
Have a Great Profile Name and Profile Pic

One first creating your account, it’s
important to come up with a great username and also have a professional
picture. The picture on your account is going to be the first thing people see,
and they will also notice your username as well.

Since Instagram doesn’t let you have any links
within your content, you will also be allowed to provide one of them in your
bio area. Make sure this is a high-quality link and not one that looks spammy,
otherwise nobody will click on it.

2 –
Follow Your Competitors

For businesses and Brands using Instagram, one
of the best things you can do is follow your competitors and see what type of
content they are creating. This is important not only to keep an eye on the
type of content they are creating, but also how they might be serving
advertisements through the platform as well.

Advertising on Instagram is one of the most
effective ways to reach new audiences, and we will touch on this later in the
article.

3 – Use
Hashtags Wisely to Reach New Audiences

While Twitter and Facebook both use hashtags on their platform, they are most
popular on Instagram. As mentioned earlier, Instagram doesn’t allow for much
text content or the sharing of URLs. So when someone is searching for content
on the platform, they are often going to use hashtags. Such hashtags can also help make you famous in the process.

Adding hashtags to each of your social updates
their Instagram is one of the best ways to reach audiences around the world,
and also making sure they are targeted in the same time. Using hashtags based
around trending events are popular topics is always a good idea.

4 – Add
Instagram Video Content into the Mix

Instagram is all about visual content and with
millions of updates going live on the platform every few seconds, you’re going
to need to grab the attention of people who might be scrolling past your
content. Images are great, but video
content often works even better. It’s also a great way to get people to
subscribe to your channel and also spend more than 30 seconds watching your
content, versus just looking at an image and then scroll light on.

Using video content is also a great way to
stand out from the crowd. Your competition is likely using a lot of static
images in their Instagram marketing efforts, but video is what really gets the
most time and engagement from online audiences.

5 – Try
Running Stories and Videos Ads on Instagram

If you are doing any type of business on the
internet, then you should be advertising through Instagram and their video ads
and video stories. Just like Facebook ads has become one of the most powerful
advertising platforms on the internet today, they have done the same thing with
Instagram — you can actually run your
Instagram advertisements right to the Facebook ads platform.

With more people using their mobile device to
access the internet and consume information from others on social media,
advertising on Instagram is simply one of the best ways to go.

As you can see, Instagram is growing in size daily and for
businesses and brands that are using it to their advantage, they are also going
to be growing in size as well. If you aren’t already active on Instagram, make
sure that you follow these steps and take advantage of the opportunity that
lies before you today.

It’s only a matter of time before a new social
platform pushes Facebook and Instagram to the side and becomes a new hot trend,
so take advantage of Instagram and his popularity while it’s still at the peak
of its game.

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